Ohio State’s campus and statewide Innovate conference will be held on May 16th! Tentative schedule and other information is currently available on the conference site. Registration will open in the next couple of weeks. Plan to attend and be inspired by faculty and other educators who are using innovative methods for teaching students and clientele! More Extension colleagues attended Innovate OSU than ever before last year, and we hope to double that number this year!

“With Impact as our theme for 2017, we’re sharing innovations that let educators re-imagine their instruction without sacrificing pedagogical quality and rigor. It’s fun to experiment and enjoy the novelty of cutting edge technologies, but we’re always looking at the way that technology has a positive impact on our students, instructor best practices, the educational community and beyond.

Innovate is a time for bringing people together across disciplines and across adoption barriers. The conference is built with the educator in mind: you don’t have to be tech savvy to fully participate in this day of presentations, demonstrations and valuable dialog.”

Don’t forget: our 2017 Innovate Extension hackathon event will take place the following day, May 17th. This year’s event will be held at Vue in downtown Columbus; an inspiring and creative space for what will surely be another fun-filled day! Lots of improvements are coming to this year’s event, including a focused theme, presence from Ohio State and Columbus innovators and entrepreneurs, and a Virtual Ideation MeetUp in April. More details will be shared throughout the month of March.

With the announcement of OSU Extension gaining access to Zoom hosted meetings and webinars, Jamie Seger, Morgan Domokos, and Brian Raison offered a “Webinar Best Practices and Online Teaching Tips from the Field” during the 2016 OSUE Annual Conference. Further training on recommended Zoom equipment, use, and teaching via webinar will be offered by the Ed Tech Unit and CFAES IT Services in 2017.

Questions about Zoom and teaching via webinar in the meantime can be sent to Jamie or Danae.

We had the highest level of social media engagement this year during annual conference than ever before! Thank you to everyone who posted what they were learning, sharing, and spending quality time with last week. It was certainly a great couple of days. Congratulations to all of our door prize winners, who hope you enjoy your early holiday gifts and put them to good use! Reach out to Jamie or Danae if you have questions about how to do so!

Our conference Snapchat filters alone were used more than 60 times and seen by over 850 people!

Here is annual conference, as experienced through your posts on Instagram and Twitter. Enjoy and we’ll see you again next year!

This year, the OSU Extension Educational Technology Unit is proud to present an expanded two-day Tech Faire featuring a line-up of talks, workshops, and demonstrations focused on upcoming tech opportunities for our organization (Zoom) and Extension’s involvement in the Maker Movement.

What is the Maker Movement?

The Maker Movement is inspiring communities of entrepreneurs, builders, and inventors to come together and share ideas and innovations. The movement, and makerspaces in particular, have been named as a top opportunity for Cooperative Extension by eXtension’s Horizon Report.

“Involvement in the Maker Movement is growing across the nation. Extension has an opportunity to engage with new audiences by applying the existing skills and knowledge found in the Cooperative Extension System.” – Paul Hill, eXtension Maker Fellow and Utah State University Extension Assistant Professor

Stop by the Tech Faire to learn more about the Maker Movement and how you can adapt current programs to tap into this new and exciting audience and way of working. Featured sessions during the Tech Faire include homebrewing, #Adulting, and even a visit from the largest makerspace on the planet, the Columbus Idea Foundry!

Zoom is coming for virtual meetings and webinars! Are you ready? Drop in to see Zoom in action, test it out for yourself, check out recommended equipment, and experience OSU backgrounds and studio space ideas.

Need a fresh way to get participants to your programs? Learn how to host a series of life skills workshops with an #Adulting theme to engage new audiences. Conceptualized by North Dakota State University Extension, #Adulting offers creative marketing and hands-on maker inspired events that utilize FCS and 4-H educational content. Learn how to make a no-sew hem and take your creation with you!

Makerspaces are one of the top opportunities for Extension within the next year, and we have the largest on the planet right here in Ohio! Learn about the Columbus Idea Foundry, dubbed a community workshop, learning center, and creative space, and how you can collaborate with them and other makerspaces around the state to engage with entrepreneurs and small businesses. Speak with local entrepreneurs who started their businesses at CIF and see their prototypes. You can even test out the HTC Vive, a virtual reality system that lets you sculpt and create 3D images.

Looking for creative engagement opportunities with local farmers, small-scale growers, and entrepreneurs? Ohio is home to a large homebrewing and winemaking population that is waiting to engage with Extension. In fact, our state is 9th largest in grape production and 7th largest in wine production. Speak with OSUE specialists and hear examples from Educators already working with this audience. Don’t forget to sample Ohio-made wines and beer from Land Grant Brewing Company before you leave!

Did you know that making is linked to the 4-H “Learning by Doing” motto and is already part of nearly every 4-H project? Extension involvement in the Maker Movement is providing an opportunity to rebrand 4-H and maintain its relevancy in the 21st century, while continuing to provide authentic, hands-on STEM experiences for youth. Learn how OSUE Educators have hosted Maker Fests in their communities through collaborative, local partnerships and how you can get involved.

Gardening is big business! The Green Industry in Ohio generates $4.9 billion in sales and $3.15 billion in payroll each year. Explore the many ways to incorporate the Maker Movement into your gardening and horticulture programming. Learn how to host hands-on workshops to make bee houses, insect hotels, and learn how to cultivate ideas for involving Master Gardener Volunteers in maker events in your community. Make and take your very own seed bombs!

3:30pm – 4:30pm: #EdTechLN MeetUp & Annual Conference After-Party

Come for the networking and prizes, stay for the fun! Before heading home, drop by the Tech Faire one last time to network with innovators and other “rogue” colleagues. The first 20 attendees will receive #EdTechLN Bluetooth beanie hats, and one lucky person will be chosen to win a Yeti Blue professional microphone package – perfect for webinars and podcasting!

We have received several requests for the song list from last week’s innovateExtension event. Here it is in all its amped-up glory! Many of the songs can be downloaded for free for Amazon Prime members.

Songs picked for the playlist were chosen to inspire creativity and teamwork. Use this playlist when you want to recreate the enthusiasm and pumped-up atmosphere from innovateExtension, or just want to have a fun, carefree day in the office. Enjoy!

The inaugural innovateExtension event was held May 12th, 2016 on Ohio State University’s campus. Twenty-two teams and more than 140 participants vied for funding for their ideas, projects, prototypes, and concepts.

Honorable Mention: Dayta Dreamers (Debby Lewis, Amy Elhadi, Kim Showalter, Suzanna Windon | Coach: Kevin Gamble) Pitch: Hiring a web developer, housed in the PDE unit, to design a “data portal”. The portal would be able to accept various types of data and generate multiple types of reports based on the data that will be accessible by a broad range of employees.

3rd Place Team: Live Healthy Live Well (Pat Brinkman, Michelle Treber, Lisa Barlage, Joanna Rini, Beth Stefura | Coach: Alice Henneman) Pitch: Expansion of the Live Healthy Live Well social media programming into a text-based message campaign, also including brief YouTube videos and hashtag creation and use.

2nd Place Team: Team GMO (Emily Adams, Lee Beers, Mary Griffith, Peggy Hall, Dianne Shoemaker | Coach: Hunter McBrayer) Pitch: A three-part plan to help Extension professionals excel with critical issues. Critical issues are not limited to controversial issues. They also include issues and situations that arise quickly and Extension personnel must address in a very timely manner. 1) Educator Training, 2) Identify Critical Issues at Annual Conference, and 3) Development and Implementation of a Protocol for Critical Issues

Finally, participants were encouraged to post to Twitter and Instagram throughout the day utilizing the #innovateOSUE hashtag. Below is a compilation of just some of the pictures, videos, and comments shared:

How Do We Participate?

Registration for innovateOSU is now OPEN. Go here to register. This conference will most likely sell out, so we highly suggest you register as soon as possible!

Registration for innovateExtension will be available very soon – keep an eye out for updates!

Participants will be required to register in teams, so start thinking now about who will be on your team and what your team name will be (have some fun with it!) Some examples of groups that may be interested in participating as a team:

Program Area or Design Team (i.e. 4-H STEM Pathways Design Team or FCS Healthy Relationships Team)

Curriculum or Signature Program Team (Dining with Diabetes, Local Food)

County Team

Team made up for the event itself (collaboration across program areas is encouraged, as more diverse groups lead to the most creative ideas)

Individuals who do not have a team, but want to participate (we’ll do the leg-work to match you up with others who need team members)

Will Our Team Have to Do Any Work Before the Event?

In a word, no. We’ll have a pre-event training on Creative and Innovative Thinking available to all event participants on April 28th, and provide some information about the event at that time. However, there is no commitment necessary in regard to your team needing to come to the event with topics or issues in mind. Teams can simply show up and see where the event takes them!

How Much Will This Cost Me?

Nothing! That’s right, it’s free! Our Ed Tech unit has been working hard to make sure this is a cost-free event available to all Extension staff. innovateOSU is also free.

Event Objectives:

To provide a day-long work session for innovative program planning.

To provide a fun environment conducive to creative thinking.

To inspire teams and individuals to update programs, change the way they work, or develop solutions to organizational challenges.

To provide Extension staff an opportunity to present new ideas and solutions to colleagues and administration.

Attend innovateOSU on May 11th to be inspired and learn how others in academia are creatively solving age-old dilemmas and finding new tools to strengthen their work.

This All Sounds Really Exciting, But a Bit Intimidating!

Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! A pre-event webinar on Creative & Innovative Thinking facilitated by the OSU Leadership Center’s Beth Flynn [Save the Date = April 28th @ 9:00am] and other resources will be offered to participants to help you prepare for May 12th. innovateExtension itself will be all about developing innovative ideas and solutions in a fun environment… not necessarily about hard work with a lot of preparation leading up to the event.

We will also have coaches on hand during the event! Each participating team will be assigned a “creative coach” to help them during their work session and pitch development. Our creative coaches are experts in thinking outside the box and helping folks stay on task! Who are they? Our Ed Tech Unit has hand picked eXtension Ed Tech Learning Network innovation gurus to serve in this role – our OSU Extension ETIT (Extension Technology and Innovation Team) members will be assisting as well!

What Will We Be Doing on May 12th?

Being innovative. Spending an entire day thinking of creative solutions to our often complex challenges in Extension. Perhaps even putting together the most non-traditional funding or idea proposal you have ever created.

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